Employers urged to lead on financial wellbeing as stress hits workplace performance 

Employers must take a more active role in supporting financial wellbeing at work, following a City of London roundtable that highlighted the growing impact of money worries on UK productivity and mental health. 

The Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing was invited to the Guildhall by the City of London Corporation to share insight at a discussion on boosting financial wellbeing in the workforce. The event followed HM Treasury’s Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November, which places financial resilience firmly on the policy agenda. 

The roundtable focused on the role employers can play as trusted institutions in embedding financial wellbeing, improving retention and productivity, as well as supporting wider economic growth. 

The scale of the issue is stark. Recent data from Zellis shows that 92 per cent of employees experienced financial stress in the past year, while 89 per cent said it affects their performance at work. Poor financial resilience affects nearly a quarter of UK adults, limiting their ability to manage day-to-day finances or withstand financial shocks. 

For UK employers, the link between financial strain and workplace health is increasingly hard to ignore. Financial stress is closely connected to mental health, absence and presenteeism, creating a direct impact on organisational performance. 

Shamira Graham of Onebright said: “We are seeing financial concerns among those seeking psychological support rise sharply, with rates doubling in recent years and even higher among those with severe depressive disorders. 

“Financial strain and common mental health problems have a bidirectional relationship in which financial difficulties exacerbate symptoms, such as anxiety and depression. These symptoms impair cognitive functioning, decision-making, and occupational performance, thereby increasing the risk of further financial hardship.” 

The discussion reflected the diversity of the UK workforce, from graduates to those nearing retirement, and from lower to higher income groups. While financial education remains important, attendees agreed that information alone is not enough. 

Maria Paviour of Optimism Consulting said: “Often the financial wellbeing debate focuses on education. However, as financial stress rises, cognitive capacity narrows, which means the worst time to offer education is often when people are under the greatest strain. If we ignore that psychological context, even well-intentioned financial wellbeing programmes may fail to reach those who need them most.” 

Participants highlighted the need for more tailored support, particularly for lower income workers. Solutions are often designed with white-collar professionals in mind, leaving gaps elsewhere in the labour market. 

Automatic enrolment into savings schemes and earned wage access were cited as practical interventions that can shift behaviour by design, helping employees build resilience rather than rely on debt during a financial crisis. 

Michelle Sutton of Suez said: “When we moved to automatic enrolment, participation rose to 50%. By removing the noise, the inertia and the low confidence, we made it easier for people to take action, and colleagues who had never saved before were suddenly building savings, feeling more confident and genuinely happier. If you want to be known as a business that truly cares for its workforce, this is about systems thinking and looking at the bigger picture. We renewed our programme by being able to clearly demonstrate the ROI, driven in large part by our discount and vouchers platform. Those savings make a real, measurable difference to employees’ net income, turning financial wellbeing from a ‘nice-to-have’ benefit into a powerful retention and recruitment tool.” 

Rachel Harte of Hastee said: “Earned wage access is becoming increasingly adopted for its proven ability to support employees’ financial wellbeing by giving them timely access to pay they’ve already earned. Yet despite the growing evidence of its benefits, it still faces unnecessary stigma across UK workplaces and industry.” 

Ray Law, founder of moneyappi who attended and contributed to the Policy Liaison Group roundtable added: “The roundtable centred on a simple but important shift – recognising that financial wellbeing at work can’t be treated as a single solution rolled out to everyone. Discussion highlighted how individual context shapes financial stress, from life stage and family commitments to culture and past experiences. And a clear theme was the need to move beyond generic siloed products and reactive support, and instead design approaches that are personalised, preventative and embedded into the wider wellbeing strategy. For HR leaders, it signals a move toward deeper understanding, better use of insight, and more human-centred support that reflects the real lives behind the payslips.”

A key theme from the roundtable was the difficulty many small and medium-sized enterprises face in evidencing return on investment. Without clear data on impact, adoption can stall, despite the clear link between financial wellbeing, engagement and productivity. 

Gethin Nadin, chair of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing, Zellis and Benifex, said: “Trust sits at the heart of this debate. The data proves that employers occupy a uniquely influential position — usually over and above that of traditional financial institutions. The state of the nation’s savings, coupled with the link between financial wellbeing and mental health, demands much greater support from UK workplaces. Financial inclusion is firmly on the radar in Westminster.  It is incumbent on employers to showcase what good looks like, to encourage the government to build on their financial inclusion strategy and play a more proactive role in supporting employers.” 

The consensus at Guildhall was clear: employer leadership, supported by regulatory clarity and collaboration with government and providers, will be central to translating policy ambition into sustained impact. 

As financial inclusion rises up the political agenda, UK workplaces are increasingly seen as critical delivery partners. For organisations focused on workforce health and wellbeing, financial resilience is no longer a peripheral benefit. It is a core component of performance, retention and long-term business sustainability.